Nov 7 Golan Heights - November 25

Our first full day of Israel and everyone woke up in the Golan Heights, the beautiful surroundings of Keshet, with great enthusiasm. Not only were the showers as powerful as a dripping tap, they were either scalding hot or freezing cold, but those were the ones who were lucky enough to have a shower head. Fortunately we were all super ecstatic to be in Israel and we were greeted with a delicious breakfast of shakshuka, salads, eggs and bread. After our meal we started the bus ride and everyone was in a great mood, I think someone even grunted when asked a question. But not all was lost, looking at the countryside Ryan was in heaven, “wow this place is just beautiful” whilst starting at the endless amounts of cows and minefields, two of which we are told can be an exploding combination to make a tasty burger.

Seeing the surroundings of the beautiful Golan, was an amazing reminder of the events that transpired over the last few days. Being in the cold, dark Warsaw and travelling to the open fields of our homeland reminded me of why we were so excited to go to Israel. ‘The land of milk and honey,’ how a land could be so luscious, in the middle of a barren desert, is a constant reminder of Gods miracles.

On the bus we are told our first destination is a chocolate factory! As you can imagine all the girls (and Jay) were very excited. We started with the educational movie on the production of the chocolate and the history and then moved on the watch some of the chocolatiers at work, someone should have brought a mop with the amount of drool on the floor. Four plates of small chocolates came and went in an incredible small amount of time but it wasn’t finished, the next room we made our own!

After this we went to an outdoor training exercise and split into girls and boys. The exercises included jumping onto a rope and swinging to the other side over crocodiles, which instead was put a cup of water, but still everyone made it across. These exercises were really great because they developed leadership, cooperation and friendship.

After dinner the boys and a few girls played soccer. It was like a court you see in the movies, where the court isn’t the best, the ball is half pumped but the soccer was top class. Ilan brought the new IST speakers, which gave it a real ghetto feel, and I can say with great happiness that my team only lost one game. The only real scare was when the ball got kicked over the net and someone screams, “wait aren’t there minefields?” So we all looked to the direction of the lost ball expecting a sudden explosion and the ball to come flying back at us. But to our disappointment we were greeted with the sounds of cows because Shilo, our guard/madrich explained that only an idiot would keep minefields next to a soccer court.

So in the end the day was a very fun, tasty and exciting day but I can safely say knowing that we have to fold our sheets in the morning for the next people will not help me sleep, because it means the stains on the sheets when we got them could have been anything and could have been there for who knows how long.